Zapatista WomanJesús Barraza

PHIL 4450: Special Topics:Modernity and Liberation

Student Materials

Syllabus

First Paper

Second Paper

What is modernity, and how should we understand its past, present, and potential future? Is it a good thing — a historical development that should be universally praised and regarded as normative? Or is there more to modernity than democracy, science, secularism, technology, and the lofty ideal of reason? These are important questions, and in this course we will explore them across numerous readings and two documentary films.

In the first part of this course, we will consider modernity from the standpoint of some of its greatest defenders. We will read Kant, Bacon, Condorcet, Gibbon, and Jefferson, and we will try to outline the most important features of modernity — from a Western perspective.

In the second part of this course, we will look at the Latin American critiques of modernity by reading Las Casas, Leonardo and Clodovis Boff, Freire, Dussel, Alcoff, Mignolo, Anzaldúa, and Subcomandante Marcos of the EZLN (Zapatista Army of National Liberation). We will also watch the film Zapatista, which chronicles the early days of the Zapatista movement.

In the third and final part of this course, we will look at the Africana critiques of modernity by reading Walker, Du Bois, Césaire, Fanon, Davis, Oyěwùmí, and Wynter. We will also watch the film Concerning Violence, which explores Fanon's thought-provoking analysis of violence in the modern/colonial context.

These are the materials that we will cover:

DEFENDING MODERNITY

“What Is Enlightenment?” by Immanuel Kant; PDF

“The New Science” by Francis Bacon; PDF

“The Future Progress of the Human Mind” by Marquis de Condorcet; PDF

“The Perfectibility of Man” by Marquis de Condorcet; PDF

“Of Empires and Savages” by Edward Gibbon; PDF

“On Indians and Negroes” by Thomas Jefferson; PDF

LATIN AMERICAN CRITIQUES

A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies by Bartolomé de Las Casas; Amazon.com